Cornel West: You Progressive defenders come and get some

I’m hotter than fish grease, so I’m going to do some cursing possibly.

Dear Progressive defender of Cornel West,

Is this your position?

I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” West says. “It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man, they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them. It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. It is understandable.

Here's that critique that some progressives are defending

First of all there is no American context that is not White, but if this be your position let me be one of the first to invite you to kiss my Black ass, there is nothing different in that statement from the bullshit that any of the dumb assed racist on Fox thinks. This President is a FREE BLACK MAN and unlike Dr. West married a Black woman lived in Chicago where he dedicated himself to actually working in the ghetto as opposed to enjoying faculty tea parties. All Black men know that Black skin is the great equalizer and despite whatever White moms or dads you have you're still a Black man to the taxi driver that won't pick you up, or to the cop who wants to play God for the day. Mr. West knows this, but he isn't speaking for Black folks here he is speaking to his paying audience, white progressives who are dying for their own Allen Keyes.

Dear Progressives defender of Cornel West

Is this your position?

“He feels most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they want,” he says

Here's that critique that some progressives are defending

Oh really? It’s the JOOOOOOOOOOOS is it? What the fuck is different from this statement and the one Beck made? Cornel West knows what makes the President comfortable? This man is an academic? No he’s not he’s half an anti semite. I wonder if his bat man reggie or his Black brother that he got from his Black wife think he feels uncomfortable around them. Oh why isn't this racist like I got called in the diary of the Plainsmen? I don't know must be because it fits certain peoples perspectives and because Cornel (comb your head dude) West says it, it gives them cover to let their little racist hearts soar.

You know just to make sure I wasn't outlying, because hey we Black folks are no monolith, I decided to jump on the afro sphere to see what I could see.

I didn't have to go far.

West, I’m sticking with those who believe that we can look less towards our differences and work towards solving the problems we share in this nation: education, energy, the economy, the environment, housing. These are the things I’m worried about — not whether Obama is black enough for me. Do African-Americans deserve some special attention given the more severe blows the recession has dealt us? Maybe. It’s so rough out here that stealing thousands of dollars worth of weave hair from beauty salons and selling hot hair on the street is becoming an epidemic in black communities apparently. Yes, it’s come to that and I can see why you might be frustrated and even angry bout it.

But West, this is a bridge too far and I’m about to tune you out.

This person from The Grio is nicer than I would be


I'm past tuning you out, you and Tavis have never been elected to anything, and you speak for us only because white folks put the microphone in front of your face. Your day is over it's time for some new sheriffs.